


Ben

by idrilsdarkwritings (idrilhadhafang)



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Horror, Dark, Ghost Ben Solo, Haunted Houses, Horror, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Murder, Past Murder, Poe Dameron Is Eighteen, So are the others
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2020-05-16 01:09:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19307578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilsdarkwritings
Summary: A rite of passage has unforeseen consequences.





	Ben

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Haunted House
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

“Everyone in Chandrila says that the place is haunted.”  
  
That’s what Snap says even as he, Kare, Jessika, Paige and Poe walk up to the menacing-looking house. Poe doubts it’s haunted (he knows that things like that really are just stories in the end), but he can’t deny that it’s a pretty grim place to look at. Something about the architecture.  
  
“It’s not exactly my ideal summer home,” Poe says. When you’re all eighteen and in high school, some things just seem like good ideas.   
  
Snap laughs. “Me neither.”   
  
They pause in front of the house. They have to go in and take something from the house where a son killed his family before turning the knife on himself. Poe literally wishes that they could do anything else, like go watch a movie. Burglarizing a house where such a terrible crime happened is just in spectacularly poor taste — and stupid.   
  
“Who wants to get arrested first?” Poe mutters wryly.   
  
“What was that?” Jess says.   
  
Poe shrugs. “Nothing really.”  
  
Snap sighs. “We won’t get caught. Besides, we’re not really burglarizing. Think of yourself as a modern day Ben Mears or something. You get to prove yourself to us.”  
  
Poe takes a deep breath. He supposes that he doesn’t like...not being able to prove himself to others.   
  
“Fine. I can prove it to you,” he says, and opens the door.   
  
The door slams behind him, locking him in pure pitch blackness. Poe takes out his phone if only to light the way, letting the glow of the screen illuminate pictures of the deceased Solo family in happier times. There’s a young boy with black hair pulling a girl with her hair in three buns in a wagon. They’re both laughing. There’s a woman on her wedding day. Poe can’t bring himself to take any of the photos; it feels wrong. He’s thinking of taking something that won’t matter. Maybe a snowglobe?   
  
Ben Mears took a snowglobe, didn’t he? That was what he did.   
  
There’s a pen and a journal. Poe knows he’s a chicken, but he’s not about to take someone’s journal.   
  
“Too long...too long in the cold and the dark...”  
  
Poe turns to look at the source of the deep voice, and it’s then he sees it. A wispy figure, with an unusual sort of beauty. Curly black hair, dark brown eyes, and a stab wound stained with blood in the middle of his chest. That must have been where he turned the knife on himself, Poe thinks. This...this must be the killer of his own family.   
  
Ben Solo’s ghost looks critically at Poe. “You’re not dead. What are you doing here?”  
  
“I was just leaving.”  
  
“Leaving?” Ben says. “You were looking for something, weren’t you?”  
  
Poe sighs. “I was stupid,” he says.   
  
“You must have been to come here. This house is a beautiful prison, but it’s no less a prison.”  
  
Poe swallows. “Well, it serves you right for killing your family.” he says.   
  
He swears the ghost flinches a bit. Then, “It is my lot. Being doomed like this.”  
  
“Why did you do it, anyway?” Poe says.   
  
“If you must know...the answers you seek are in that journal.”  
  
Ben gestures towards it.   
  
“I’ve been watching you since you came up to the house,” Ben rumbles. “You are a beautiful one.”  
  
Poe knows he’s really grown into his looks for a young man of eighteen, but somehow it’s different when this ghost says it. Poe’s pleased and getting the chills all the while. A familicide-committing ghost is repulsive to him, really.   
  
“Take the journal. And from there, perhaps, you’ll understand. You truly will.”  
  
Poe nods. “I’ll get out,” he says.   
  
“Tell the others,” Ben says. “Go now. I’m...resigned to this afterlife.”  
  
When Snap asks him what happened after he comes out, Poe can’t describe it. Snap certainly wouldn’t believe it. Maybe he’ll find answers in the journal, Poe thinks, no matter what it takes.


End file.
